James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

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Monday, September 2, 2013

Animatronics are sophisticated puppets controlled by performers on set using cables or servos. They lend a realism to movies that CGI creatures often can't achieve because animatronics exist in the actor's physical space, where they can interact in much more complex ways.

(Direct link to video) Here's a showreel of the work of Gustav Hoegen, who has worked on Prometheus, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Clash of the Titans. The images range from cute to creepy, but it's amazing to see the exquisite mechanical inner workings.

As HOZ has said, animatronics are good for on set interaction, however once the design has been sculpted and cast you cannot change it without loss of time. On set costs, are fabrication, design, electronics, operators/puppeteers and on set servicing, if its on screen for a brief moment the cost of all this offsets CGI. CGI you can revise and alter to the nth degree, also you can change the physicality of the CGI creation within your scene. This cuts down time as with a animatronic creation you may need extra room for lifting and moving or to put in false floors and sets. With CGI you only need to let the on set supe do his HDRI and Tonal mapping (SIlver ball and grey ball), LIDAR mapping (done during lunch) and the camera operator keeping a continuity log of lens data, distance, aperture and a lighting plan. This is more flexible than animatronics, however animatronics a actor can interact with and improvise, CGI is more difficult (though MOCAP is helping see Ted) . Each are a tool and should be approached for the visual impact and interactivity on screen. Audiences are starting to prefer in camera work.

Costs involved are basically the same, time, labour, and design. If you have 6 weeks to film edit and release Spielbergs War of the Worlds comes to mind CGI is quicker and easier. However if you have time and want interaction and believeablity for example Labyrinth animatronics complete that.

Cost for CGI,

Software licence, Operators, Look Dev, Design, Animation, Shading, Compositing and render time. balance animatronics and CGI out. Getting costs of a production company is impossible, however one CGI shot that I saw budgeted came to $25,000 however seen Animatronics that cost the same.

I should mention too that Legacy Effects, the former Stan Winston Studios, is still very active in animatronics, as well as CGI and prosthetics, and they have a strong teaching presence now. They have a lot of interesting videos on YouTube, and offer online classes on creature construction and animation.http://www.legacyefx.com/